Starting a business

[mpcharles]

Hi all,

This is my first post, short term lurker but loving the community so far.

I wanted to ask those who have started or still run their own business, how they started and why they choose that particular field?

Long story short I have only just started to be able to dream again (10 years of chemical anti-d's) now I'm clear healthy and cured and I am ready to start the next chapter.

But I am struggling to find passion in a particular field. I have worked mostly customer service all my life. So I lack any sort of niche technical skills.

Here is what I am good at

Negotiations
Conflict resolution
Strategy
Sales
Building relationships

Any ideas? Thank you in advance.

[StudentofFreedom]

Hey mpcharles,

Those skills should help you in just about any business you start.  I also have embarked on the journey to start a business.  There are a few different schools of thought on this.  Here is a sampling:

1. Pick something you're passionate about and find a way to get people to pay you for it.  (this was always difficult for me also because I'm not terribly "passionate" about anything)

2. Take inventory of yourself.  Make 3 lists: Skills, Strengths and Interests.  Then find where they intersect.
Skills:
What are you good at that you could teach other people? What would you be interested in learning?
Strengths:
What are you good at? What would other people say you're good at? What activities make you feel "in the zone"?
Interests:
What do you read? What do you do when you have an open weekend? What kind of stuff catches your attention online?

3. Find a problem and fix it.
Finding problems is an art in and of itself, but fixing a problem that people have been really struggling with is a great way to go.  If you have sales and relationship building experience, this should come easier to you.  Ask other business owners about their business and what problems they have.  Ask them what things they hate doing and wish somebody would take off their hands.  Ask them what things are most time consuming.

You may not have the technical chops to solve these problems yourself, but you can always build a team that can help you solve it.

4.  Join somebody else's team.
Get plugged into your local entrepreneur/startup crowd.  Get to know what people around you are working on and realize that you have applicable skills that many startups need.  Leaders wish they could code, coders wish they could sell, salesmen wish they knew finance, finance wishes... etc.



Personally, I've used 2, 3 and 4 in some way.

Using #2: I realized I like teaching and I'm good at math and physics.  I started tutoring on the side for cheap and then started raising my rates when I got my confidence up.

Using #3: I keep a list of problems or business ideas I could work on.  I'm in the process of launching a product to solve one of these problems.

Using #4: I have friends who are interested in starting certain businesses and we've teamed up.




I hope that helps! Starting a business is a dream of mine that I've been working on for 2 or 3 years now.  I'm always happy to chat about it.

[mpcharles]

I appreciate your great response thank you!